Runaways
by mugiwaragrl
Summary: I was just a boy who happened to be drowning due to a Tenryuubito - which was perfectly legal, as stupid as it might be. That meant rescuing me was illegal. But why was I still alive?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: As promised, the reboot to ANR! This is sort of like a prelude; I will update by arcs, so as soon as the first one is finished I'll publish it all at once~ Enjoy~**

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Darkness. That's what everything was at the moment. Not to mention the cold, sinking feeling. And the burning feeling. And the piercing feeling. Actually... scratch that, darkness wasn't everything. There was also unimaginable, burning, piercing pain in my whole body. But I could neither move nor do anything about the pain. Not even control my eyes. It was a complete nightmare.

I remember the coldness suddenly disappearing, and being carried easily by large arms. It hurt incredibly, being moved around like that, but I could't say it was intentional. Much later, voices - strange ones, mind you - all around me. Then being released on a soft surface, then sheets. The pain wasn't gone yet. Hands and bandages, various substances that made my skin burn more for a bit, the occasional pinch of a needle. The pain subsided with time.

And the bed was practically everything for the next few days... weeks... months maybe. Who knew? Time was agonizingly slow without having much to do but breathing. Oh, but there were also a few conversations, to which I couldn't reply. It was always the same voice, that rough, deep, but strangely soft voice, which sounded oddly familiar. Once in a while it would visit me, making my comatose days more interesting.

Then one day, after a long time of silence and utter boredom, I saw some light. After so much darkness, it was blinding, even if it still seemed far off. It was slowly, very slowly drawing closer. At first, I thought it was death. Or afterlife. Or purgatory, I don't know. But I certainly didn't think it was what it really was.

And that was how I opened my eyes to a gray brick room.


	2. Chapter 2

I jolted up, and only then realized it was a horrendous mistake, since my head started spinning. I dizzily looked around.

...There was no way in hell this place was in Goa.

The gray bricks in the wall, though well-kept, were visibly much older than even the kingdom walls. The light coming through the window was blindingly white, not warm orange like in the island. The breeze coming through it was chilly and smelled of earth, not like anywhere in the island.

And then my childhood survival instinct kicked in.

I kicked off the blankets as a sudden adrenaline rush invaded my body, jumping off the bed. Stumbling, I ran to the door and yanked it open. The gray corridor was deserted. Nevertheless, I chose going to the right and ran. Closed doors flew past me in a blur as i ran, ran as fast as I did when I found out about Luffy being captured, as fast as I did when I found out about the fire, as fast as when I ran from my parents' house-

I almost tripped over my own feet and stopped when I remembered. I had run away. I was setting out for sea. The Celestial Dragon shot my boat. It exploded. I shouldn't be alive.

...Why was I?

I stayed still and tried to think straight. The people here - if any - probably weren't bad, since they had saved me. Now that I thought of it, I felt a litttle stiff, from all the bandages on me. But why had they saved me? I was just a boy who happened to be drowning because of a Tenryuubito. Which was perfectly legal, as stupid as that might seem. That meant that rescuing me was illegal... Why would someone take that risk? There must have been a hidden purpose... Unless of course it was Ace, but I had ruled out that possibility - Ace didn't have an antique stone castle. Duh.

Voices from behind me made me snap back to the present. They were still far off, but I could tell that they were in distress. Maybe they found out I was gone. I realized that neither of them were the voice that I heard in my... dreams, sleep, that _state_ I was in, whatever. So I kept running. It was then that I realized that my legs hurt. Probably from not using them for a long time, but I kept running.

Suddenly, the corridor opened up to a large entrance hall openly adjacent to an even larger ballroom. Gray and empty. No furniture, no paintings, and not a soul. Why would they want such a big place if there were barely any people?

Far inside the ballroom, I spotted a large staircase. I dashed up them to find another long, but wider hallway, also bordered with large doors. At the far end, there was a double door, bigger than the rest, and wide open. I ran across the hall towards it. I started making out a large desk, a high chair, and an open balcony. I practically jumped inside and just stood there prepared, expecting something to happen.

The chair behind the desk turned around to reveal a sharp-faced, muscular, long-haired man, with a tribal tattoo across the left side of his face and a somewhat scary face. "Oh, you're awake," he said with a careless tone and surprised eyes.

I flinched. That voice... And that face... Where had I seen it- it was the man I met at Goa during the fire! He was the one that saved me? So many questions popped up on my mind then, I couldn't do much but fall to my knees, staring at him. "Y-You..." I mumbled. "Y-You saved me?"

He simply nodded. "Yeah."

"W-Why?" I asked, not in the least bit less confused.

He shrugged, a bizarre-looking childish expression on his face. "A hunch."

I didn't know why, but that sounded so strangely familiar. "A hunch..." I repeated. "W-Where are we?"

"Baltigo."

"..." I could see this was getting me nowhere. "A-And where is that?"

"Southern Calm Belt."

He's unbelievable.


	3. Chapter 3

Not that I wasn't used to unbelievable people anyways.

Once I had calmed down, he had me sitting in front of his desk, drinking some warm tea he had conveniently prepared. "Why?" I simply said.

"I told you, a hunch," he said blankly.

"N-No, why did you bring me here?" Because seriously, who brings a random kid from East Blue all the way to your private castle in a Calm Belt? Sounded pretty suspicious to me.

"Well, you were on the verge of death."

"Yeah, b-but why all the way here?! Now I'm miles away from-"

"Home?"

I fell silent. Goa... my parents' house... that wasn't my home. But I still had my brothers.

"I-I have brothers, you know," I said.

"Eh? You were alone when I saw you, though."

There was no suggestion whatsoever in his tone, but I fell silent again. I... had left them, hadn't I? For their own safety, I left them to go back to Goa. My father- no, that horrible man wasn't my father - he said he wouldn't hurt them If I left them to go with him.

"It would appear to everyone in the island that you're dead. If you want to change that, I can take you back."

"Well of cour-" I cut myself off. In one hand, Ace and Luffy probably thought I was dead... On the other hand, the man who called himself my father also thought that too. If I returned, I would be forced to live under him for the safety of my brothers, and let them know I'm alright. But if I didn't, my brothers would still be safe... with the belief that I had died.

"Uh... help me here for a second..." I said. Since I couldn't really make up my mind, I decided to ask him, even though I knew his advice would be influenced by his own opinion. "F-First of all, why do you want me here?"

"Simple. I want to train you to become a revolutionary."

I blinked once. "Revolutionary."

"And a very important one, too. You already have potential-"

"W-Wait!" Damn, he was making me dizzy with this much information to take in. "E-Explain to me what you mean..."

"Oh, right." He had genuinely forgotten that _tiny _little detail. Can you believe him? "Alright then. Not a very long time ago, I decided that I want to go against the World Government. Since then, I've been gathering allies, soldiers, commanders - people to support the cause in order to achieve it. And I would like you to become one of those people.

Well, that escalated quickly. Not that I was too against the concept, just that it was very sudden. "You want me to help you... overthrow the World Government..." I summed it up.

He nodded. "Think about it. How being a noble felt, even in Goa. How they treated poor people lower than scum. How a World Noble shot you down merely for being in his way."

I thought I could feel the skin under the bandages tingle when he said that. Damn, he was good.

"I-It's true that... I didn't want to return..." Because really, why would I have left in the first place? "But..." There was still the other matter. "I-I'm not sure..."

"Well, let's do the following." He leaned forward on his chair. "I'll give you a month. You won't do any errands or missions, so no one will know you. Oh, and I suppose you already know how dangerous it is if your identity was revealed?"

Well, duh. It was basically the same as being a pirate in that case. I nodded. "So... I'll just look around for a month?"

He nodded.

There was a knock on his door, and he called for the person to come in. A woman peeked through the door, spotted me, and smiled. "So he was here with you, ne, Dragon-san?" she told him. _Dragon_... what an awesome name!

The woman came in, followed by another man. She had short black hair, which could be confused with a man's hairstyle, pale skin, and a tall and slender build; she wore a dark green cloak, and under it a long-sleeved dress shirt, blue pants, and knee-high boots. The man was much more extravagant: he was the same height as the woman, and wore the same cloak, but he had a clover-shaped hairstyle, divided in half along with his coat; the right side white, the left side orange. _What... on... Earth..._

Dragon addressed me. "These are Shinju and Inazuma. Guys, this is..." He trailed off and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "I'm sorry, what was your name?"

"Sabo," I told him, and then turned to the others. "Nice to meet you!" I said with a smile.

"You too!" Shinju, the woman, smiled. The strange man just nodded in acknowledgement. "So you're the new guy?"

"Wha...? Um, I haven't decided yet..." I turned to Dragon with amusement. "What if I decide not to join?" Though I knew even then that it was unlikely.

He grinned brightly. "Don't worry, I'll convince you alright!" he said positively. He seemed... oddly familiar in that matter.

I laughed. "You remind me of my brothers," I said.

"Really? The ones in Goa?"

"Yeah, especially the younger one, Luffy!" I looked in the distance, thinking about my brothers. "And, you might wanna remember that name. Him and Ace will be great pirates some day!"

"I'm sure they will," he smiled.


End file.
